Time to get turnt, Gambier-style! Have you heard about these legendary parties from Kenyon’s history?

After a week full of classes, Kenyon College students love nothing more than to get absolutely sloshed and head out for a night of partay-ing.  Ever since Kenyon’s founding in 1824, Kenyon has seen some iconic parties, which have resulted in some legendary stories, passed down through oral history to us, the current keepers of Kenyon’s party scene.

Here are some highlights…

The Peep’s Circus (1960)
The Peep’s O’ Kenyon threw a circus-themed party right in midst of America’s counter-culture movement, but with a twist! In protest of “society,” instead of music, beer, and dancing, all 400 attendees showed up in full clown make-up and sat silently in neatly arranged chairs in a cornfield for twelve hours, through heavy rain.

The AD’s Booze Cruise (1944)
The AD’s had quite the nautical theme for this legendary Kenyon party! They stole and piloted a US Navy submarine onto land, sailed across New York and Pennsylvania, parking the 6,000-tonne war machine right on Middle Path. It is rumored that Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, ’48, had one too many beers and ended up firing an explosive payload straight into the heart of Old K, killing most of the sophomore class!

The DKE’s Toga Party (1978)
Right after the release of “Animal House,” the Kenyon DKE’s decided to have a little toga party of their own. After 4 straight hours of standing in a circle chanting “Toga! Toga! Toga!”, the DKE’s lowered the corpse of an ox from the bell-tower of the Church of the Holy Spirit, and used it as a piñata. Students took quite a while to break through the ox’s thick skin, yet all that was inside was unwrapped Almond Joys.

The AD’s Albanian Passport Forgery Sweatshop (1912)
After a long night of dancing, what student wouldn’t love to be put to work meticulously arranging forged documents to travel across Albania’s borders? This AD party lasted for three and a half years until it was shut down by Interpol officials and every attendee was arrested, with a minimum sentence of ten years in federal prison.